When you listen to music, you don't usually think about
the composer's writing process. But the fact that Jerry Gerber's new CD of
modern
orchestral music, "The Art of MIDI Sequencing," was entirely
created with samplers, synthesizers and sequencing makes the end result all the
more impressive. The crown jewel of "The Art of Midi Sequencing"
is Symphony No. 5, a 38-minute piece with four movements. It's a bold sound,
with beautiful sweeping
passages reminiscent of Copland and Dvorák in places.
The themes are skillfully developed, and Gerber shows a sure hand with the full
palette of orchestral
instruments, virtual or not. He also uses some odd time
signatures, harmonies and scales that the old dead composers wouldn't have
dreamed of![an error
occurred while processing this directive. The new CD is
Gerber's seventh featuring his sequenced orchestral compositions. Although he
also teaches
composition and has created a wide variety of music for film,
dance, interactive media, and television (including all of the original music
for Nickelodeon's
The Adventures of Gumby), composing serious orchestral music
remains his first love.

His "orchestra" includes Roland's XV-3080, and
JV-1080 sound modules, Cakewalk's SONAR, Tascam's GigaStudio and EMU E-6400
samplers.
In addition to composing, Gerber did the orchestration, MIDI
programming, mixing and mastering. He produces everything in his project studio,
where
he recently upgraded his Mackie Digital 8 Bus console to a 24-bit/96k Yamaha DM2000.

Interestingly, in addition to the standard (sampled)
strings, brasses, woodwinds, and percussion, Gerber has no problem using
electronic
effects or virtual choruses in his orchestras. That's because he
regards MIDI composing as a different medium from traditional orchestral
composition. "The virtual orchestra is not a substitute for that and will
never be, in the same way that photography isn't a substitute for
painting or
film isn't a substitute for plays," as he explains in the following
interview with Digital Media Net's Frank Moldstad.

DMN: How did you get into composing orchestral music with
MIDI?

Gerber: I began working with MIDI around 1983, shortly
after my graduation from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of
Music
in composition/theory.

DMN: What do you like about this process?

Gerber: The ability to interpret my own works without
having to depend on 100 people offers many advantages. The ability to make
changes, compare orchestrations, cut and paste sections, and tweak on the micro
level to create gesture, expression and intention
is what holds my attention to
this medium.

DMN: Did you begin your career composing the traditional
way?

Gerber: Yes. I began composing with paper, pencil, piano
and metronome. I worked like this for many years and would have never in my
wildest dreams foreseen how I work today. There has always been an intersection
between art and science, technology has been responsible
for the violin and the
flute even though we are so accustomed to these things we don't often think
about it in these terms. Composing with
digital technology is an extension of
our desire to make tools and make music with those tools.

DMN: Do you think what you do is more difficult or easier
than composing for orchestra in the traditional way?

Gerber: In some ways it is both easier and more difficult.
It is easier in the sense that I can immediately hear the results of my work and
experimentation
takes on a whole new meaning when I can hear the results of
changes right away. It is also easier in the sense that my studio is available
to me
at 2 a.m. if need be. But it is difficult as well. Getting a seasoned
orchestra with great players to "sound good" is not that difficult and
the results, even
in the hands of a mediocre composer, can be impressive by the
very fact that so many fine musicians are making music together. Getting even a
simple
chord to sound beautiful in MIDI can be very challenging. Knowledge of
orchestration is required of course, but so is knowledge of mixing, mastering,
synth and sample editing, and a keen hearing of overtones and their interaction.
Working with equalization is also paramount, as many passages
can be improved
with a little EQ.

DMN: In some ways, it must be harder for a virtual
composer to decide a piece is finished, because you have so many options such as
key
changes or instrument substitutes that can be quickly tried.

Gerber: It is a fairly intuitive process in regard to
knowing when a piece has been worked on intensively enough that it is called
finished. I always
hear things in my recordings that I could have done better or
differently, but there is a point of diminishing returns. Perfection is a goal,
not a destination.
We are such imperfect beings that no matter how many options
we have we still cannot achieve artistic perfection. The illusion that we can is
most
often entertained by those with the lowest artistic standards.

DMN: How do you usually start a composition?

Gerber: Many ideas are born out of my piano
improvisations, others develop while I am in meditation, still others result
from using a mouse and
inputting notes onto the staff view in SONAR. Sometimes a
mood or other subjective criteria is the seed, sometimes a tempo or a harmonic
progression,
and sometimes even a scale can be the initial generator of ideas.
Often a melodic theme starts the process.

DMN: Do you ever compose music that would be impossible
for live musicians to play, just because it sounds interesting, or do you stay
within the
limits of human ability?

Gerber: Yes. On my CD "Moon Festival," released
in early 2002, I have a piano suite which consists of 12 short pieces. Many of
these pieces would require
three or four hands to play. There are some wind
passages which would require a breath, whereas in MIDI no such limitation
exists. I have also written
some fast pizzicato passages that might be difficult
for some players.

DMN: Do you want your music to sound as if a real
orchestra is playing it? Does that matter to you?

Gerber: Yes and no. Yes in the sense that I deeply value
the multi-timbral experience. Transparency (how well each instrument is heard
and
has its own space), blend (how well the instruments sound together),
orchestral weight (which elements get the emphasis through number of timbres
playing that element) and balance (timbres delegated to specific musical
elements relative to each other) are unifying principles whether one
orchestrates
electronically or acoustically. But the techniques one evolves to
achieve these principles are very different. The acoustic orchestra is a
phenomenon that is
unique, particularly when heard in concert. The virtual
orchestra is not a substitute for that and will never be, in the same way that
photography isn't
a substitute for painting or film isn't a substitute for
plays. The virtual orchestra is a medium, and like all mediums it has its
virtues and limitations.
The virtues and limitations are further complicated by
the fact that orchestral traditions go back many hundreds of years; digital
orchestration is a very
young medium by comparison.

DMN: Have you performed your music in public?

Gerber: Yes, but not in a very long time. I have heard
ensembles play my work and I've done a little conducting of my own music. I
actually
played in bands for 10 years or so starting when I was a teenager. But
my heart (and talent) is in composition so that is where I've focused
for the
past 34 years.

DMN: What are the hardest instruments to work with using
MIDI?

Gerber: It depends on the sample library. Winds are always
a problem to orchestrate. Individually they can sound fine, but getting them to
work in an
ensemble without having them end up sounding like a big organ is
difficult. A lot depends on the orchestration, the register, dynamics and what
is going
on in the texture with the winds. It takes a lifetime to master this
kind of thing.

DMN: What sample software collections do you have?

Gerber: I am currently using the Gary Garritan Orchestral
Strings, the Dan Dean Solo Winds and Solo Brass, the Symphony of Voices and
various
other smaller libraries and synthesizers I'll keep my ear open to any
new woodwind libraries. I am also interested in non-western instruments and
have
used them extensively in my "Five Songs on the Poetry of Tu Fu,"
released last year.

DMN: Where can people get a copy of your new CD, "The
Art of MIDI Sequencing"?

Gerber: This new CD contains my 5th symphony for the
virtual orchestra, a 38-minute work in four movements, as well as a shorter
one-movement piece called "Essay for Virtual Orchestra." I worked on
this CD project for about a year. I am very please with the results; the test is
how I feel about it five years from now. I think it is my best symphony, but I
always think that about my latest piece!